AFGE to Congress: Oppose Any Cuts to Federal Employee Compensation

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The largest federal employee union—the American Federation of Government Employees—is urging Congress to oppose any additional cuts to federal employee compensation during deliberations to address deficit reduction.

"Federal employees and their families are the lone group of Americans who have made sacrifices to deficit reduction," said AFGE Legislative and Political Director Beth Moten, in a letter to Congress. "We have suffered cuts worth more than $100 billion over 10 years, all of which were made to reduce deficits.

"Federal employees have given up $60 billion (over 10 years) in the unprecedented two-year pay freeze, and the 0.5 percent raise delayed to April 2012 saves an additional $28 billion. That's a total of $88 billion," Moten added. "Adding the $15 billion in savings from the UI bill's 2.3 percent tax increase on post-2012 hires brings the total sacrifice by federal employees so far to $103 billion over 10 years.

"The federal workforce has done its part to address the budget deficit. I strongly urge you to turn your attention to the federal contractors. Although the actual size of the federal service contractor workforce is unknown, we do know that it is immense," Moten said.

"In the Defense Department,for example, total civilian personnel funding increased by $28 billion from 2001 to 2010. During that same time period, total service contract funding increased by $77 billion," Moten said. "Over the past 12 years, the increase in allowable government compensation to contractors has outpaced inflation by 53 percent. With budget cuts looming, it is fiscally irresponsible to allow private contractors to get away with this.

"It is grossly unfair to expect working people to pay for the inflated salaries of contractor employees," Moten said. "The loyal, patriotic, working class and middle class Americans who make up the civilian federal workforce have done their part. Enough is enough."

AFGE is the largest federal employee union representing 670,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees

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